Kumiharu Shigehara

Kumiharu Shigehara , born 5 February 1939, is a Japanese economist, who was a central banker and an international civil servant.^[1][2] He is the author of The Bank of Japan, the OECD, and Beyond: Reflections from a lifetimes' work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024),^[3] and the editor of The Limits of Surveillance and Financial Market Failure: Lessons from the Euro-Area Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).^[4] Shigehara is currently president of the International Economic Policy Studies Association in Paris, and is also a columnist at the Japan Times.^[5]

Shigehara was born in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan on 5 February 1939. After graduating from Gunma Prefectural Maebashi High School, he entered the University of Tokyo in 1958. At the university he first studied in the College of Arts and Sciences, where he achieved the highest academic record in his cohort. He subsequently entered the Faculty of Law after receiving a scholarship from the Hozumi Scholarship Foundation, awarded to the top student in his year. While formally specialising in law, he also studied economics, including economic theory under Kenko Kimura, monetary theory under Ryuichiro Tachi, and international finance under Shigeo Horie. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1962.

Kumiharu Shigehara pursued his professional career both at the Bank of Japan and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD in Paris, France.

After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1962, Shigehara joined the Bank of Japan. Following a year of banking training in France, he worked in the Bank's Research and Statistics Department, including sections dealing with economic developments in Europe and North America as well as domestic economic analysis. He later served in the Policy Planning Department and the Foreign Department, where he was involved in the planning and implementation of domestic and international monetary policy.

During his career at the Bank of Japan he also represented the Bank in international financial forums, including the Bank for International Settlements committee on banking regulation and supervision. He also attended meetings of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. He later served as General Manager of the Bank of Japan's Nagasaki Branch, and subsequently became Director-General of the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies from 1989 to 1992.^[6]

Shigehara worked at the OECD headquarters in Paris on four separate occasions beginning in 1970, spending much of his international career within the Organisation's Economics Department. During his first appointment (1970–1974), he served as economist and senior economist and later became Head of the Monetary Studies Division. During his second appointment (1980–1982) he served as deputy director of the General Economics Branch of the Economics and Statistics Department (later renamed the Economics Department).

During his third appointment (1987–1989), he served as Director of the General Economics Branch.

In 1992 Shigehara was appointed Head of the OECD Economics Department and Chief Economist, becoming the first person from outside the English-speaking world to hold the post.^[7] The Financial Times in its issue of 22 January 1992 described him at the time as "A tall, donnish man... noted abroad for espousing a tough, autonomous and not excessively pro-American monetary policy at the Bank of Japan."^[3]

As Chief Economist he oversaw preparation of the OECD Economic Outlook, coordinated analytical work within the Economics Department, and led discussions within the OECD Economic Policy Committee and its Working Party No. 3, which brings together senior finance ministry and central bank officials from major economies. He also represented the OECD in international policy discussions with other institutions such as the IMF and other international fora involving major economies including the Group of Ten at the deputy ministerial level.

In 1997 Shigehara was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD.^[8] In this role he supervised cross-departmental work across the Organisation covering economic, social, welfare, and development policy among OECD member countries. He also participated in consultations with policymakers from major non-member economies including China and Russia, and attended ministerial-level meetings involving groups such as the Group of Ten and the Group of Twenty, both at the ministerial level.^[9]

After leaving the OECD, Shigehara became President of the International Economic Policy Studies Association (IEPSA), a Paris-based organisation promoting international policy dialogue. He has continued to lecture and publish internationally on monetary policy, international economic cooperation, structural reform, and global governance. Shigehara has argued that monetary policy frameworks should avoid rigid reliance on any single rule—such as money supply targeting, inflation targeting, exchange-rate pegs, or nominal GDP targets—and instead combine medium-term judgement with transparency and accountability. He has also commented on Japanese economic policy debates, including the management of Japan's asset-price bubble in the late 1980s and structural reform in the Japanese economy.

Shigehara's memoir "The Bank of Japan, the OECD, and Beyond: Reflections from a lifetimes' work" was published from Palgrave Macmillan in 2024. It describes how international monetary and economic governance evolved over six turbulent decades since the early 1960s, and how one Japanese official became one of the OECD's most influential voices. Former OECD Secretary-General Donald Johnston wrote in a letter dated 5 February 2019 that Shigehara's earlier Japanese memoir "The Bank of Japan and the OECD", published in that year, was "very important for the OECD where there is so little living institutional memory.^[10]

In the name of his Majesty the King of Belgium and the Government of the French Community of Belgium,the University of Liège awarded Shigehara with an honorary doctorate in economics in November 1998.

• Shigehara, Kumiharu; Thygesen, Niels (1975). The Role of Monetary Policy in Demand Management: The Experience of Six Major Countries. Paris: OECD.
• Shigehara, Kumiharu (ed.) (1993). Price Stabilization in the 1990s: Domestic and International Requirements. London: Macmillan.
• Shigehara, Kumiharu (ed.) (2014). The Limits of Surveillance and Financial Market Failure: Lessons from the Euro-area Crisis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Shigehara, Kumiharu (2019). 日本銀行とOECD ― 実録と考察. Tokyo: Chūōkōron Business Publishing.
• Shigehara, Kumiharu (2024). The Bank of Japan, the OECD, and Beyond: Reflections from a Lifelong's Work. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Shigehara, Kumiharu (1996). "Options Regarding the Concept of a Monetary Policy Strategy."

In: Deutsche Bundesbank (ed.), Monetary Policy Strategies in Europe. Munich: Verlag Vahlen.

• Shigehara, Kumiharu (2001). "Monetary Policy and Economic Performance."

In: Leijonhufvud, Axel (ed.), Monetary Theory and Policy Experience. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Shigehara, Kumiharu. Speeches and commentary at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium (https://www.kansascityfed.org/research/jackson-hole-economic-symposium/)organised by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
• Shigehara, Kumiharu (2021)."Is Global Green Growth Achievable?". keynote speech at the French-Japanese Business Summit on 9 November.

Kumiharu Shigehara : An International Economist's Private Room http://shigehara.online.fr